130

[impure_tale]

Short and unpleasant. I suppose that when the Admiral gives us ports that turn out to be completely unsalvageable, that's the best he can offer us.

Not pointless -- you might have noted I did not use that word. If anything, my brief sojourn into the mad wilderness yielded some experiences that were most illuminating. Even on top of knowing what it feels like to be shot in the face -- an advent about which I'm certain Monsieur Swing will be delighted to hear.

Note also that I didn't say "eaten alive". I'll let the lot of you ponder on that. I might have to write about that one someday, but for now? Rest, I think.

[Private to Iago]

Are you safe? 

Comments

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

No. You did what was easy because you were afraid, and you are no friend of mine.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

Then we aren't friends.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

Apparently not.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

You're the one who made the declaration. Were the tables turned, I wouldn't have held it against you.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

That's your choice. I wouldn't have done it because I wouldn't murder someone I care for.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

It was survival.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

It was wrong.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, moral compromise is necessary for the greater good.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

There was no greater good, you stupid tit; we were all coming back here regardless of how, and you, like every over Inmate here, were being tested.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

I don't have the same faith in the Admiral as you evidently do. Take a look at Martha's entry. We didn't all return.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

Because people could not possible have disappeared as a result of it being the barge, and people always disappear, and nothing to do with the port itself.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

You're right, it must be a coincidence that a handful of people vanished right at the port's conclusion.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

Just as people vanish right at the start of floods, or the conclusion of floods, or the conclusion of other ports. Or sometimes enmasse at no significant time of the month at all.

You want it to be more significant now because it might serve to help justify you.

You know him too well

[major-west.livejournal.com]

No, I believe it to be more significant, because I know how a world like that can consume a person entirely.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

You are a better. Man. Than what you've allowed these situations to make you into. And that you can have been here this long, see all that you have, and allow yourself to become that craven, despairing husk of a person again -- it's disgusting. It's pathetic.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

I got my people out alive.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

The only reason why you're not recovering from the death toll yourself right now is that Iago was not harmed thanks to your stupidity.

But truly? All four of them seen to the safe house?

[major-west.livejournal.com]

He wasn't harmed because he followed my orders.

My people, Marquis.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

So not all four. Just the ones you decided were convenient to you.

You're really no better than the Master when you're like this.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

I'm nothing like him.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

Oh no, there is a significant difference between the two of you. Do not mistake me. His are the acts of an evil man gone insane, and yours are the evil acts of a good man gone insane. A different start but an identical finish -- a few shifts in terms of development and motivation, but when it's laid down in the books, the characters tend to be drawn from the same stock.

[major-west.livejournal.com]

I don't need to listen to this.

[impure-tale.livejournal.com]

So which ones did you make a point to get rid of?

[major-west.livejournal.com]

We parted ways. I didn't harm them.

Somewhere, in the distance, you feel Billy like you a little more, because of this.

[my-freeze-ray.livejournal.com]